


alternative medicine; or how genji learns to heal

by snoozyfern



Category: Overwatch (Video Game)
Genre: Blood and Gore, M/M, Panic Attacks, Violence, fluffy robots, genji has nightmares and zenyatta helps him, mentions of mom+dad shimada
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-08
Updated: 2016-11-08
Packaged: 2018-08-29 22:50:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,017
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8508592
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/snoozyfern/pseuds/snoozyfern
Summary: lil gonjer has a nightmare and zonyurdle is There To Help





	

Genji crept quietly through Shimada Castle, his childhood home, a past safe haven. For now, however, it was a battleground and a deadly game of cat and mouse. He felt vulnerable, with only his shortsword to protect him. He had felt the creeping, looming fear for days now. Since his father’s passing, his brother’s reactions and emotions had shifted somewhat. If his brother was stoic _before_ … he shuddered as his scarf whipped gently in the breeze as he passed onto the balcony. He settled his breathing, in order to hear anything around him more clearly as he scanned the garden below him.

Without any prior warning, he felt a massive thump between his shoulder blades, and he went flying over the balcony rail. He managed to land on both feet in the nick of time, however, the drop was quite steep, and he felt his ankles crunch and buckle under the weight. He whimpered like a kicked puppy as he landed gracelessly, pulling himself up. He heard another thump behind him, and felt a sharp kick in his side seconds after. He grunted, curling in on himself.   
“ _Pathetic_.” His brother growled, using his foot to roll Genji onto his back. “Looking at you, I’m glad that mother died before she got to see you grow up. I imagine she’s rolling in her grave just being aware that you’re still alive.” He delivered another sharp kick to the younger’s ribs, eliciting a pained cough from him. Genji panicked, reaching for his shortsword in its sheath. As he raised his arm, however, Hanzo crushed it against the floor under his metal-soled boot, and Genji barely heard the sickening snap over his own agonised wail.   
“God, shut the fuck _up_.” Hanzo tutted, “Although, this won’t be over very quickly for you. It would probably be best for you to make yourself comfortable; no one can hear you scream like a child out here. No one is coming for you.” As Hanzo jeered at the younger brother beneath him, Genji watched a helicopter retreat overhead, bearing the familiar Overwatch insignia.

Angela? Why are you leaving? You were meant to save me…

As Genji watched the helicopter disappear into the clouds, he heard the telltale _shhhing_ of a katana leaving its sheath. Before he could react, Genji felt the wrenching pain of the tip of Hanzo’s sword piercing his chest and slicing into the gravel beneath him. He barely reacted, opening his mouth only to whimper and sputter blood over his shirt. Hanzo chuckled darkly, bashing his fist on the butt of the katana. It dug in deeper, forcing a volley of blood out from beneath the younger brother. The white hot pain in his chest subsided into a bitter numbness. Hanzo laced his feet either side of his brother’s hips, kneeling down closer to Genji’s ear.   
“None of us loved you, Genji. Father was embarrassed by you. Mother never knew you. And I hate you. You are a disgrace to yourself, your family, and the whole Shimada name. It’s no wonder Overwatch had no use for you. No one ever did.” And before he could respond, Hanzo dragged his sword upwards violently up Genji’s body, and his torso and head were gruesomely bisected.

There was so much blood.

Genji awoke with a start, panicked and dissociating. He fumbled to wrench the sword lodged in his chest, startled when he found none. He began to hyperventilate, forcing himself out of bed and crashing to the floor in a shuddering, whimpering heap. _He couldn’t breathe._   
“Genji?” a voice asked, but Genji couldn’t make out the source as he scrambled to pull his brother’s hands off his neck so he could breathe.   
“Genji, look at me.” Zenyatta emerged from the darkness, lifting up the ninja fairly easily and sitting him up on the bed. “It’s not real, Genji. None of it is real.” Genji shivered, the world coming back into focus as the steam hammer in his chest relaxed. His master gently removed his mask.   
“Oh, Genji.” He sighed, wiping under his student’s eyes with both thumbs. Genji’s shoulders heaved as he sobbed and sniffled, gripping the bedsheets beneath him. Zenyatta moved slowly to sit next to him.   
“It happened again.” Genji admitted, his voice fragile.   
“You don’t need to talk about it if you do not want to.” Zenyatta responded, taking one of Genji’s hands in both of his.   
“…it was the Hanzo one.” He responded, eventually. Zenyatta, despite being incapable of facial expressions, was clearly saddened in his body language. “The way it happens in the dream is so much worse than it was in reality.”   
“You have lots of internalised anxieties and fears surrounding your brother, Genji. What he did was awful. It is only understandable that you dream this way.” Zenyatta rationalised, leaning closer to his fearful pupil.   
“I do not fear my brother, master. I have forgiven him for what he has done. So why does this keeping happening to me? Why do I keep having these horrible dreams?” Genji wrung his hands in his lap.   
“Perhaps you are taking it too literally, Genji. It is preying on your mind. This fictionalised version of Hanzo in your head is the one tormenting you. So much uncertainty and anxiety around how he will react upon seeing you again.” Zenyatta suggested, speaking quietly as if too loud a noise would break Genji into pieces.   
The ninja huffs a small laugh. “You may be right, Zenyatta. Thank you, master.” He smiles, pressing a small kiss to the square of dots on the omnic’s forehead. “You always seem to know what to say to put my mind at ease.”   
“I understand how this must be making you feel, Genji. I simply want to clear your mind.” Zenyatta hummed, releasing his student’s hand. “Would you like to meditate for a while?”   
“No thank you, master. I should go back to sleep.” Genji decided, “I do not feel well rested yet.”

“I will be watching over you.” Zenyatta placed a hand on his student’s scarred face, feeling the smile spread across his face.   
“I know.”


End file.
